THE travel operator Thomas Cook could be starting a trend - at least in Britain, where it has begun a series of one day commission amnesties in an effort to boost its sale of foreign currencies.
The company, famous for over 150 years for its `Cook's tours' and its travel cheques, onto which it charges a 1 per cent commission, last week saw its first, one day commission amnesty for the sale of French francs and plans are afoot to introduce amnesties for the sale of other popular currencies.
A pilot scheme involving Spanish pesetas was also described as "extremely successful" and boosted sales and orders of pesetas by more than 500 per cent.
It will most likely be restricted to larger volume currencies, but is restricted to total value transactions of no more than £2,000.
A spokesman for Thomas Cook in Dublin, the only branch of the company in the Republic, told Family Money that "there are no plans" to introduce a similar commissions amnesty here. "It was a Britain only promotion, and wasn't even done at our branches in Egypt, Europe or Canada.
"There are 400 branches in Britain, but only one here and the lack of volume sales simply wouldn't justify the expense of advertising and promoting an amnesty," he said.
